Testimonies
This presidential race will decide the fate of America.
Elon Musk
I once read speculation that the first prayer was uttered by a distant ancestor gazing upward at the majesty of the night sky and exclaiming, “Ahh…”
To maintain that the wonders of the universe extending from quasars to quarks and perhaps beyond is mere chance is hubris and foolishness.
The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle argued the position of what we now call causality. He said that something does not come from nothing. In other words, I am here because of my parents and they existed because of their parents, going all the way back to what we now call the Big Bang concept 13.5 billion years ago. But what caused that?
You may be surprised to learn that the two naturalist theories of how life on earth began are (1) the building blocks of life fell to earth from space on meteors and asteroids and (2) the building blocks of life spontaneously assembled on mineral crystals forming in pools alongside primordial seas. But where did the building blocks of meteors or the seas come from?
The concept of Intelligent Design seems plausible to me. Furthermore, I believe each of us is created and imbued with a spark of divinity manifested as curiosity to wonder and explore our universe and search for our Creator. I’ve read arguments that humans’ survival advantage is not speed, strength, etc., but curiosity which stems from intelligence. And the latter arises from the interconnection of the 100 billion neurons of the human brain. As the Psalmist sang, we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).
Last week I learned that Kamala Harris is a Baptist, at least she was a member of the Third Baptist Church in San Francisco. I’ve never heard anything about faith from Kamala other than to tell pro-life students who shouted, “Jesus is Lord,” during her speech about abortion that they were at the wrong rally. Alternatively, I’ve heard President Trump speak repeatedly of his Christianity, his Presbyterian roots and that the Lord saved him from assassination. I’ve also heard JD Vance speak of his faith and I read his book where he credits faith, his grandmother and the Marines for saving him from the ravages of drugs and poverty in his family.
Our country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, so why should we not speak of these? Or why should there be a separation of church and state since this artifice is not in the Constitution? I’ve written that SCOTUS Judge Hugo Black inserted into a Supreme ruling an obscure letter from Thomas Jefferson reassuring Baptists in Danbury, Connecticut, that the government was not planning to establish a state religion as existed in England. Recall that SCOTUS also held that Dred Scott was property. Much of what’s wrong with our country is that God has been excluded from the public square and the workings of government.
I was recently challenged by a friend when he gave his testimony at a Bible study. Christians are well acquainted with personal testimonies describing journeys to a faith perspective. I believe most believers have such a story. And although family and close friends have heard my story, I have never shared my testimony with a larger audience. I do so now after much reflection and prayer.
I received a basic Christian education as a child in our neighborhood Presbyterian Church, but my family was never engaged in the faith. And when I went to college I became “enlightened” and thought I no longer needed the Lord. Like the story of the Prodigal Son told by Jesus in Luke 15, I wandered in the “far country” until my senior year in medical school.
I was doing well in medical school, but it was tough and I was miserable. A Christian friend challenged me that since what I was doing wasn’t working, I should try a different direction. I started attending church, rediscovered what I had lost and was saved.
My life improved but I remained lonely and the Lord knew I needed a life partner. I remember praying for a helper and felt a strange peace as I drove home for Christmas in 1974. I had been home thirty minutes when Becky called me.
I met Becky at Tyson Junior High School in 1963, but she described me as a “friend,” a descriptor no male covets. However, by high school, my stock had improved and we dated a bit as seniors, but parted ways before attending UT.
We had not seen each other in years. She had just moved back to Knoxville from Florida and called to see if I would like to play racket ball. We did, then had coffee and reconnected. We went out to dinner and something clicked. Two weeks later, she came to visit me at medical school and I asked her to marry me. She said yes and we were married that fall fifty years ago next September. When I doubt Providence, I think of a saved Prodigal made complete by a life partner held fast by a cord of three (Ecclesiastes 4:12).
Enough about me, I want to share the testimony of our Burundi friends who escaped the Hutu/Tutsi massacres in Africa and came here legally in 2007. They are now US citizens and Becky and I took them to early voting last week. We were helped immensely by Ms. Jackson, the early voting center supervisor, who was herself a naturalized citizen from Liberia. What an experience for all of us and a testimony to their immense journey and the goodness of America which must be preserved. Like Elon Musk, these refugees from Africa understand what is at stake. One said, “It is important for America and the world that Trump be elected.”
So again, I urge you to “bank your vote” with early voting through October 31. Becky and I, our people (family) and our Burundi friends have done so. It’s our privilege and duty as citizens to vote. And along with prayer, it is what is required of those who have been blessed (Luke 12:48).
